Introductions
by YoshiFurbyPhoenixGirl257
Summary: A strange phenomenon resulting in hollows in the World of Pandora Hearts sends Nemu over there, where she meets Echo, who recognizes something in Nemu.  Oneshot.  Pre Soul Society Arc on Bleach, post St. Belligeron's day on Pandora Hearts.


**Well, this was intended to be a quick vent of inspiration and writing, but it turned out longer and... Somewhat worse than my original vision. Oh well, things like that happen. Also, this is pre-Soul Society arc, so Nemu hasn't met Uryuu yet. Read and review! **

_A chain?_ Echo sprung back from the claw, whisking her her knives out from her sleeves. A great cloud of debris rose as the claw hit the ground where Echo been had moments before. _But where?_ Her eyes narrowed and darted side to side. _Where's its contractor?_

Again, the claw swiped at her, forcing Echo to jump up, and as gravity let it take its course, she fell towards the chain's head. _Chain..._ The 'chain's' _masked_ head. Of all the hundreds of chains Echo had slain before, none of them had a skeletal mask like this.

That wasn't all. Echo was just an Echo, but The Noise _knew_. It didn't feel anything like a chain. Echo readied her knives, and swiped at the _thing._ Half a step back, and it left the girl's line of attack. Echo landed on empty ground. Her eyes widened, and her head snapped up to the monster that had evaded her attack.

It wasn't a chain.

From the crouching position she had landed in, Echo pounced up, heading once more to the monster's head. Behind her, the claw closed in. Neither reached its target.

Out of nowhere, a firm, cold grip seized her wrist, and tossed her aside. The force with which this happened astounded Echo – she slammed into the stone pavement, and it dented beneath her. Pain shot up her arm, and Echo choked on the gasp that fought to escape her. Her arm, at the very least, was broken. _What...?_

Echo turned her head to see what had happened. Glowing lights entangled the thing, now screaming as it struggled to escape, but somehow the lights had bound the creature. But that wasn't Echo's main concern. She knew how and hand felt – and it had most certainly been a hand that had thrown her aside. _A hand... Which means, a person._ Echo searched, and finally her eyes found a figure, hidden behind the bright lights.

Through the blood pounding wildly in Echo's ears, she heard the other say something, something all but unintelligible to her. Suddenly, a box of light of the likes Echo had never seen before surrounded the thing. She didn't blink. Her eyes never left it, not even for a second.

It disappeared. Without a trace, it disappeared. Muffled steps on pavement made Echo look up as the figure stepped forward. A woman, wearing a curious all-black outfit except for a wide white sash and black hair pulled back in a braid with a red choker secured tightly around neck, came into Echo's view.

"Who are you?" Echo asked, "What are you doing here?" Echo didn't stop there. "Who do you serve? What is your purpose?" The questions rolled out, automatic and non-stop. Echo began to draw herself upright, entire body screaming against her, but one laying incapacitated on the ground wasn't someone one would feel particularly compelled to give answers to.

Echo needed answers. Vincent-sama wouldn't be pleased to learn of all these developments without proper explanations. Staggering, Echo fingered her knives. She would get answers.

Luckily for the girl who could barely stand, such measures weren't necessary. "Nemu Kurotsuchi," the other answered the first question, "Capturing samples. Maintaining the balance." She answered the second. Echo's guard lowered, taken a back by the other's manner. "Mayuri Kurotsuchi." Echo cocked her head to the side, confused by the other. _People aren't like this..._ Echo knew it better than anyone. _Most people aren't like this..._ "To serve Mayuri-"

The other was cut off as a third person entered the abandoned alleyway. "_Nemu!"_ A harsh voice screeched, _"What do you think you're doing?"_ Echo gasped at the sudden arrival of the third, and even more so at the... Man's? Appearance. An ostentatious wig of such bad taste – or was that actually his hair, Echo had to wonder – and an equally distasteful ornaments emerging from the 'man's' face, so much so that Echo could hardly believe he dared be out in public. A white... _What was that?_ Echo had no idea what to call the flowing white garment with black diamonds lining the bottom. But under said garment, some sort of again-unidentifiable black robes wrapped around the... Man's... body, a white sash tied many times around his waste, and a hilt of a sword sticking out of it.

All of this Echo registered in a second. The next moment, the man's arm crashed into the one who had introduced herself as 'Nemu', the shockingly white and skeletal arm plunging into her midsection, sending her crashing into the wall of a building. Echo could hardly believe her eyes. The wall for the building trembled for a moment, a desperate struggle to support the roof. A desperate struggle, and a futile one. As if a powerful chain of the Abyss had assaulted it, the building collapsed. Wide eyed in awe, Echo's attention snapped from building to the man. She had always thought of herself as strong – or at least, physically strong. But compared to _this,_ she was a mouse.

And then by some virtue so very new to her, Echo's attention shifted back to the building. _There were people in there..._ She limped towards the rubble as fast as her aching body would allow. Hazily, a part of her mind questioned what she was doing, and why.

A boy, about her age, maybe younger, with yellow hair and green eyes rose in her memory. _"Just because something doesn't concern you doesn't mean it doesn't matter..." _Echo's hand, already clamped over her injured arm, tightened. _That_ was why. Even if she herself didn't fully understand it...

A movement among the rubble caught Echo's attention. Her jaw slackened. Nemu emerged from the rubble, more or less unharmed. Somewhat unnerved, Echo eyed the woman. _You shouldn't be able to move. You don't even have a scratch. What are you? Echo isn't familiar with this..._

"My apologies, Mayuri-sama," Nemu moved forward, effortlessly closing the distance between her and the so-called Mayuri.

"Tch. You _worthless_ girl. Use your head some time, why don't you?" he glared at her, and for a moment Echo thought he would hit Nemu again. But he didn't, instead shaking his head as if at a foolishly hopeless situation. "Really. I say, is it actually to difficult for you to secure samples on your own? Why must I come and clean up after _every little mess you make?_" Mayuri exclaimed, clearly dictating each syllable of the last part of his phrase, his exasperation oozing through.

"My apologies, Mayuri-sama," Nemu repeated. Echo watched, a small bubble of emotion welling in her. Nemu used the same exact words as before. Echo swallowed, a shiver running down her spine as light musings in the back of her mind spawned confusion without form or certainty.

Speechless, Echo slowly turned her attention back to the rubble, and began sifting through it. Echo slung the arm of a man with a deep cut gushing scarlet blood over her shoulder, winced, half fell to her feet, but limped forward, every step shaking, every second bearing the possibility of her fainting. Blood rushed through her head, waves of dark lapped before her eyes, and her muscles screamed as if they were on fire. At last, she extricated herself and the man from the remains of the building. Collapsing in a heap, she lay the unconscious man beside her, and sat for a few seconds struggling for breath.

"You," a voice called. Echo turned to the speaker, 'Mayuri'. "Yes, you," he pointed his finger at her. Echo stared at the man, and a delighted smile spread over his face. "So," his grin widened, and warning bells sounded in the back of Echo's head. "You can see me. How very interesting! My interest has been piqued – come, Nemu. Take that girl. I can hardly wait!" His eyes gleamed, a mixture of excitement and... Malevolence?

Echo took a step back, her uncertainty of what to do in the situation quickly mounting. "Yes, Mayuri-sama." Echo gasped at the voice speaking from behind her. _How? Echo doesn't understand...!_ Deceptively slender arms secured Echo in a too strong grip. Terrified, Echo looked up, craning her neck to see the other woman's face.

Empty. Full attention on 'Mayuri'. 'Nemu' didn't spare a glance to her. A shiver ran up Echo's spine. _A perfect model of obedience._ Echo gulped, swallowing the exceptionally bitter taste in her mouth.

"Nemu," 'Mayuri' crowed, "Daft girl. Do you really intend to show her our secrets?"

"My apologies, Mayuri-sama." _Again._ There was a rustling in the woman restraining Echo. _The same words, without any difference; none whatsoever. _A needle shot through the skin, piercing Echo's vein. Consciousness fled Echo.

* * *

_Vincent-sama. I have to go to Vincent-sama. _She'd been out too late. Vincent wouldn't be pleased, and it was never good when Vincent wasn't pleased. Echo's eyes fluttered open.

This wasn't where she'd been earlier. This was completely unfamiliar to her. Although, come to think of it, where had she been earli-

Echo sighed, her eyes shutting, realization of what had happened earlier swiftly drowning her in reality. _Captured by the enemy..._ What else could it be? An unknown enemy, to be sure, but if one took her away from her duties, away from her master by first, then yes, they were an 'enemy'. _Great..._ If this kept going the way they were, and _She_ would demand to come out and take care of things. At the very thought Echo could already feel her Other stirring, just waiting to come out. _No... Stay... I can handle this.._

Echo heard a door creak open, and she attempted to sit up to see who her visitor was. Only to find she was held down by thick straps, securing her to the bed she lay on. Bed? It was more like, now that she thought about it, a _table._

_This is bad... Echo is in a very bad position right now..._

But even if she couldn't move her body, she had at least been afforded the luxury of being able to swivel head, and she did so. 'Nemu' had walked in the door, and now undid the straps. In preparation of her release, Echo tensed and prepared to attack, adjusting the muscles in her arms to better eject her -

Her knives. Her knives, which, apparently, had been confiscated. Echo heaved a sigh of defeat. Without them, she had no chance of defeating the woman before her. She even had to admit that _with_ the knives it would have been a stretch. Echo's attention shifted to said woman. She worked quietly and efficiently, and in no time Echo's mobility had been restored.

Sitting up, Echo used her arms to prop herself up. And promptly blinked at a revelation that startled her – her left arm, though thoroughly broken _last_ time she checked, was now fully functional. Echo's face hardened into a line. In a brisk movement, she turned to Nemu. "You are not human," she stated, closely watching for Nemu's reaction.

She nodded in a business like manner, completely and utterly not taken aback by Echo's statement, which in and of itself cemented Echo's suspicions. "Correct," Nemu stated, just as calm and analytical as Echo was.

"So," Echo asked, testing her arm, an act which only proved what she already knew – it was fully healed. "If you are not human, then what are you?"

"Shinigami," Nemu answered mechanically. Nemu had stopped milling about, and now her full attention was directed on Echo, analyzing and waiting the girl's questions.

"Impossible," Echo murmured, "Stop lying," Echo slid off the table so she stood on her own two feet and faced Nemu. There was, after all, no one remotely like this in all of the Baskerville household.

Now, Nemu was taken aback. "I'm sorry but I'm afraid I am. It's true that I'm artificially created, but I am a shinigami none the less."

"Nonsense," Echo reiterated, but she could only discern earnesty from Nemu. _Artificially created...?_ Echo wondered, an afterthought.

"In what way am I not? I am a spirit, after all. I can kill hollows, and even perform konso. There is no flaw in the programs Mayuri-sama installed in me," Nemu declared, and deciding that that should end the discussion, she turned and hastily headed towards the locked closet, one of the few things in an otherwise bare and empty room.

_Spirit? Hollow? Konso? _Echo had no idea what Nemu was talking about. It certainly had little to do with the Baskervilles. Deciding Nemu didn't understand what she meant, Echo chose to move on to something she _could _understand.

"Your 'Mayuri-sama' – he's the one from... Back then? Where am I now?" Echo asked. Nemu paused, a notepad and pen in one hand. She walked back towards Echo.

"Yes. You're... At Mayuri-sama's... House..." Nemu chose the nicer words she could find, and the simplest too. Echo didn't quite buy it, but allowed the matter of where she was drop.

"When we were back there..." Echo bit her lip, hesitating on whether or not she should go on. "Mayuri... He hit you back there. Does that happen often?"

Nemu's expression morphed and hardened. "_Yes. _He does," she hissed, her voice low and icy, her dangerous tone daring Echo to continue, an unsaid 'so what of it?' hanging ominously at the end of her sentence.

Echo remained silent for a moment, then slipped back, leaning against the table. She craned her neck as she looked at Nemu's iced facial features, green eyes like flickering embers just waiting for the gust of oxygen to enrage it. _Both yes and no..._ Echo thought, and she pried herself away from the woman's gaze. Quietly, Echo stared at the ground.

"Most people don't get it, do they?" Echo asked. To her credit, Nemu hid her reaction well – just not well enough to evade Echo's observant eye.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean," Nemu retorted, her voice crisp and formal, polite and sharp. "Now if you would excuse me-"

"People don't understand why you follow him. They don't get what he means to you," Echo eyes darted from the green of Nemu to the spotless white floor. She was invading the business of another who she knew so little about . "Even Echo doesn't quite get it..." She slipped onto the table, and she swung her legs, knocking her feet against the table's legs. Why was she doing this? She could be wrong. She didn't know what she was saying. She -

"He beats you, and yet you only respond with absolute obedience," the words continued to fall from Echo's lips, because her doubts earlier were only an attempt to modify her behavior into what she had once seen as 'appropriate'. She did know – she might not have all the details, but to say she didn't understand Nemu's behavior earlier, that would've been a lie. And Echo believed in _him,_ believed in the words and message he had told her in the most precious memory of the entirety of her life.

"Yes," Nemu hissed through gritted teeth, "Because-"

"Because when all is said and done," Echo cut in, and Nemu's face contorted into fury.

The woman's hand raced towards the girl's neck, "You don't know -" Nemu hissed, her voice choking and gasping over the words. Echo evaded Nemu's attack, her own face hardening with such finality that Nemu stepped back.

"What else is there?" a quiet murmur, and her thought was finished.

Echo sighed, and the tension fled her muscles. Nemu seemed to calm, and she turned, leaving the room in close, crisp steps, her braid wagging and waving from side to side with each step. Echo watched her leave, not saying anything. The door shut and Echo heard the distinctive snap of a lock following.

Echo turned, looking up to the moon through the high, barred window. She didn't know much about that Nemu. Echo had to admit that they could be in very different situations. Echo laid down on her back, stretching. That wasn't particularly relevant. She knew enough. She saw enough. Thanks to _him,_ she _understood_ enough.

Nemu didn't know anything else. Echo tucked her arms under her chin, holding herself close. She remembered the first time, back then, at that festival, that she had felt 'happiness'. Remembered that time when she chased the insignificant boy whose only real connection was to the doomed illegal contractor, and the boy that had cared about him. Did Nemu ever see anything like that? Echo pressed her hands together. She already had a pretty good idea about the answer.

Nemu didn't know; not yet. Someone like _him_ had yet to come into that girl's life. Echo's fingers twined around a strand of hair. She wished she could do it, help this person. But she wasn't sure how. She didn't have the ability... Not yet... But now, maybe...

Echo sighed, her eyes fluttering close. She hoped that one day, someone would show Nemu what she meant. She hoped that one day, Nemu'd be able to understand. And... Was this selfish of her? She hoped that her words had helped the girl understand. _Yes..._ Echo began to fall asleep. _Probably selfish.. And incorrect..._ But she had to do something. Echo hated the thought of letting all this slip by. _It matters... I had to do something..._

* * *

The next day, Echo awoke to see 'Mayuri' looming over her, a disgusted look on his face.

"Darn those imbeciles who don't know the meaning of science!" he muttered under his breath. Before Echo could register what was happening, a cold, white and skeletal hand clamped over her wrist, then roughly pulled Echo to her feet. "Really! You're a perfectly good subject! I swear, why do I have to obey them?"

"Kurotsuchi-taicho," a voice warned. Echo's eyes darted to the corner where the voice originated. A man, perhaps a tad over six feet tall. Glasses. Wavy brown hair. The same sort of overcoat-thingie of which Echo did not know the name of. There was also something in that man's expression... Kindness? Someone like _him?_ Hope rose in Echo. _Show her,_ she prayed.

"I know! I know! Why are you here anyways? Do you really not trust me enough to do it myself?" Mayuri screeched, busily stamping across the room to a drawer. He grabbed a needle from it.

The other man just smiled. _Show her,_ Echo thought, and the needle, now filled with clear liquid, shoved into her vein.

_No..._ Some hollow emotion swallowed her and the numbing concoction quickly sought to deprive Echo of her senses. The hazy realization washed over her. _It's more like... _A civil mask. Outwardly kind. Gentle. Caring. Like the man who had so carefully dried her hair.

That same man had also poisoned her.

_Vincent-sama..._ Consciousness slipped out of Echo's grasp.

* * *

Rain tapped over her face. Echo blinked awake. She was back, back in that alley she was before – before what? Disconcerted, Echo sat up, rubbing her eyes as she tried to remember. And failed. _Wha...?_

Echo's concern over her missing memories, however, were soon eclipsed as steps sounded, coming closer and closer.

"Well, what do we have here?" Echo looked up, and looming before her... Vincent Nightray. He extended a hand, and Echo had little other choice than to grab it. "Echo... Where were you?"

Echo didn't say anything, just watched her master with a close eye. If that was 'Mayuri', she would already have bruises forming. _This man is more civil..._ Echo followed Vincent back. _Or, knows how to pretend to be civil._ She climbed into the carriage, and Vincent smiled at her. _But even so, _Echo slipped into the corner of the small carriage box, _No less cruel._


End file.
